The present invention relates to the field of electronic games. In particular, it relates to an electronic guessing game involving certain subtle characteristics inherent with the English language, viz. acronyms.
Over the past three decades, a host of intellectual mind games, primarily of the guessing types and both mechanically and electronically implemented, were advanced. The subjects of these games have to do with words of languages, numbers, cryptography, confectionery and mechanical pieces. A list of these games invented over the years is presented below as subject matter references:
U.S. Pat. No. 3,524,648 (1970) xe2x80x9cPuzzle apparatusxe2x80x9d;
U.S. Pat. No. 3,628,792 (1971) xe2x80x9cGame apparatus involving magnetized selection of game piecesxe2x80x9d;
U.S. Pat. No. 3,825,255 (1974) xe2x80x9cNumber guessing game devicexe2x80x9d;
U.S. Pat. No. 3,891,218 (1975) xe2x80x9cDecoding crossword-type gamexe2x80x9d;
U.S. Pat. No. 3,948,526 (1976) xe2x80x9cGame apparatus for a game of hangmanxe2x80x9d;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,012,044 (1977) xe2x80x9cHangman game apparatusxe2x80x9d;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,194,742 (1980) xe2x80x9cLand and sea war game apparatusxe2x80x9d;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,251,078 (1981) xe2x80x9cGuessing gamexe2x80x9d;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,341,389 (1982) xe2x80x9cWord finding and guessing gamexe2x80x9d;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,375,666 (1983) xe2x80x9cElectronic gamexe2x80x9d;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,565,373 (1986) xe2x80x9cNumerical guessing gamexe2x80x9d;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,685,672 (1987) xe2x80x9cGuessing game and associated playing periodxe2x80x9d;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,733,863 (1988) xe2x80x9cConfectionery gamexe2x80x9d;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,811,953 (1989) xe2x80x9cNumbering guessing game structurexe2x80x9d;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,338,043 (1994) xe2x80x9cCryptographic guessing gamexe2x80x9d;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,359,780 (1994) xe2x80x9cBow sight assemblyxe2x80x9d;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,479,506 (1995) xe2x80x9cCryptographic guessing gamexe2x80x9d;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,740,243 (1998) xe2x80x9cCryptographic guessing gamexe2x80x9d.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,341,389 issued to Dumond et al. in 1982 (listed above), the disclosure describes a game to be played by two players and which involves the guessing by one player of a word selected by the opposite player. By questions and answers, the player will try to locate the position occupied by the word to be guessed, opposite a particular column, after which he will try to identify each letter of the word to be guessed. In his turn, the opposite player will also try to arrive at guessing the word selected by the first player. While this game is an excellent tool to develop the vocabulary of a person, it is totally different from the present invention which is a guessing game about acronyms of the English language and not directly about the guessing of words.
As a matter of fact, the most popular games about words and languages over the past several decades have been the games of Scrabble and Wheel of Fortune. Both of these well-known language games are based upon and played around language words. For example, the game of Scrabble tests the players with their depth of knowledge about the words of the language. The players have to compose valid words (according to a standard dictionary) to score points using letters in their possession. On the other hand, players of Wheel of Fortune have to guess at letters in order to get to the words that compose and reveal the puzzle. Again both of these xe2x80x9cwordsxe2x80x9d games are different from the present invention which takes advantage of the subtle characteristics of the English language as expressed by its many acronyms.
According to the Webster""s New Collegiate Dictionary, an acronym is a word (as xe2x80x9cradarxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9csnafuxe2x80x9d) formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term. An acronym is not the same as abbreviation which is a shortened or contracted form of a word or phrase, used to represent the whole. The use of acronyms can be dated back a long way, at least in the English language. In the U.S., the use of acronyms appears to originate initially for simplifying the identification of certain public organizations such as associations or trade unions. The best example is the acronym xe2x80x9cPTAxe2x80x9d which stands for Parent-Teacher Association. No doubt many acronyms in the U.S. can probably be traced back even to before the early 1900""s, however many acronyms started to appear in 1930""s and 1940""s. Examples are xe2x80x9cUAWxe2x80x9d which stands for United Automobile Workers and xe2x80x9cAMAxe2x80x9d which stands for American Medical Association and also for American Management Association. Even in the English language itself, acronyms sometimes also show up. One example is xe2x80x9cTWIMCxe2x80x9d which stands for To Whom It May Concern.
But the proliferation of acronym usage across the American society at large did not start in earnest until after the World War II. There are several reasons to account for this occurrence.
The most prominent is the continued growth of the population in peace time while the English language remains virtually unchanged, both in size and usage. By that we mean very few new English words have been added to the language from the period after World War II until today. Meanwhile more and more organizations and associations are being formed thereby creating the more acronym usage just for identification purposes. Examples are xe2x80x9cUNESCOxe2x80x9d which stands for United Nations Educational Scientific Cultural Organization and xe2x80x9cNAACPxe2x80x9d which stands for National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Another reason is the continued growth of scientific disciplines in society thereby springing many new professional associations which do not exist before. Examples are xe2x80x9cDISAxe2x80x9d which stands for Data Interchange Standards Association and xe2x80x9cACAAxe2x80x9d which stands for Agricultural Conservation and Adjustment Administration. Still another reason is due to the Government agencies, particularly the Defense Department and the Pentagon. During the period prior to the recent end of the so-called xe2x80x9cCold Warxe2x80x9d, a tremendous amount of research and development was earmarked for conventional and nuclear weaponry, space satellite communication and missile and rockets deployment. A host of acronyms quickly appeared on the scene, partly to conceal to some extent the nature and contents of many of the research projects from foreign nationals and average citizens and partly as jargons to impress the US Congress for project funding appropriations. The most familiar acronyms include xe2x80x9cICBMxe2x80x9d which stands for Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles, xe2x80x9cSDIxe2x80x9d which stands for Starwar Defense Initiative, xe2x80x9cMSPxe2x80x9d which stands for Mosaic Sensor Program and a host of others.
But by far the greatest reason why so many acronyms are in use in American society today is the advancement of science and technology during the past several decades. This ushers in many new industries including computer hardware and software, microelectronics or the microchip, medical instruments, pharmaceuticals and drugs, genetic engineering and finally the Internet and the World Wide Web. The advent of these new sciences and technologies literally impacts all aspects of the American society. One example is the electronic banking and commerce. As an example of the volumetric use of acronyms in this industry alone, over 200 of them are listed in Appendix I. There are many other industries like the electronic banking and commerce and they too have their equally large arsenal of acronyms widely in use today.
The widespread use of acronyms in just about every industry today has pretty much created artificial barriers or walls separating professionals, workers and the average citizen alike in different industrial disciplines. For example, a chemical engineer, accustomed to only reckoning acronyms or jargons in the chemical industry, has a hard time understanding a software engineer""s acronyms used in the day to day transactions of the electronic banking and commerce industry. Because of this situation, the average citizen is getting harder and harder to understand the phrasing and terminology of many of society""s fabrics which he has to interact and deal with on a daily basis. Unless something is done to counteract this unhealthy situation, many of the citizens in society will be by default becoming more and more isolated from one another. The progressive lack of mutual understanding among the citizenry of a society in their everyday life will in time become a threat to the peace and prosperity of the entire society itself.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic game apparatus for guessing English language acronyms. The object is to attempt to educate the average citizen through this acronym guessing game by familiarizing him with the meaning of many acronyms used in all facets of the society wherein he lives. The presently invented acronym guessing game is easy to implement, simple to play and hopefully exciting and educational. Since no such a game is available today, it is the fervent hope of the inventor that the presently invented game will serve to fill a need in society at large.
In accordance with the present invention, an electronic game apparatus for guessing the English acronyms comprise a game console and a system processor, wherein the said game console includes an alphanumeric keyboard to interface and input a command to the said system processor, a display interfaced to and controlled by the said system processor to display the status of the game, and an ON/OFF switch; the said system processor includes a central processing unit, a read only memory for storing the system software for performing the acronym guess, a random access memory and an input/output interface, wherein the said system software for performing the acronym guess includes a start loop module for setting the playing chances and the players"" turn for each player, and a main loop module for displaying the subject category to be guessed, the acronym puzzle and the game wheel, and for guessing the meaning of the acronym based on the word spellings relative to each letter in the acronym puzzle and the related prompt information which are set and displayed at each segment on the game wheel.
In accordance with the present invention, an acronym game session is defined as a game playing period lasting typically, but not limited to, 30 minutes in length. An acronym puzzle game is defined as one of several to be played during a particular acronym game session. The number of acronym puzzle games actually played during a game session might vary dependent upon how long a particular acronym puzzle game is played by the players. Typically between 3 to 4 acronym puzzle games can be played during a game session lasting approximately 30 minutes.
Although the Acronym Guessing Game can be played by just about any number of players, it is generally best played by four players or less. If the number of players is more than four (4), then the game session is preferred to be elongated to more than 30 minutes dependent upon the actual number of players. As a rule of thumb, each player should be allocated a playing time of roughly 10 minutes per game session.
For every game session, there are six (6) subject categories specially assigned for players from which to select his/her puzzle, when his/her turn comes up to play for a particular acronym puzzle game. Associated with each of the six subject categories are three or more acronym puzzles to be guessed at and solved by the players. The players"" turns to play during a game session are determined randomly ahead of time by the game apparatus before the session actually starts. When it is his/her turn to play, the player will first select a particular subject category. An acronym puzzle will then appear automatically for the players to solve during the ensuing puzzle game.
The first player then spins a wheel having 24 segments. All the 26 alphabet letters either singly or in small groups occupy a total of 18 segments. Two segments are allocated as xe2x80x9cWild Letterxe2x80x9d and two as xe2x80x9cExtra Cluexe2x80x9d. One of the remaining two segments is xe2x80x9cLose a turnxe2x80x9d and the other xe2x80x9cBankruptxe2x80x9d. As the name xe2x80x9cWild Letterxe2x80x9d implies, when a player lands on this segment, he or she can pick any letter in the remaining acronym puzzle in order to fully spell out the word represented in the puzzle by that chosen letter. On the other hand, when the players lands on xe2x80x9cExtra Cluexe2x80x9d, a clue will be displayed about the meaning or origin of the acronym puzzle in order to help the player to come up with the correct guess. Except for the two segments xe2x80x9cLose a turnxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cBankruptxe2x80x9d whose meanings are obvious, each of the other 22 segments all carries a monetary value. In some special acronym puzzle games, the monetary value of some segments could be replaced by a special promotional gift item or a travel trip paid for by one of the Acronym Guessing Game advertisement sponsors.
The game continues after the first player""s turn to spin the wheel. Dependent upon which of the segments is landed, the first player will start accumulate monetary value as shown in the wheel segment. Since the segment might also carry a letter (or a small group of letters), that matches one or more of those in the acronym puzzle, the word or words corresponding to one or more of the acronym puzzle letters will be fully spelled out if that is the case. If the segment contains no monetary value but a gift or a travel trip, the player will keep the gift or travel trip in lieu of the monetary value. After each spinning of the wheel, a player can take a guess at the acronym puzzle. If he guesses correctly at the puzzle, then that particular puzzle game will end and the winning player will collect all the monetary value accumulated during the game, plus any gifts or travel trips earned if applicable. The other players will forfeit their corresponding accumulated monetary values and/or the gift or travel items for the game that is ending. If the player guesses incorrectly, the game will continue with the next player waiting in turn to spin the wheel.
These steps will continue until one of the players finally guesses correctly at the acronym puzzle to end this particular game. After a puzzle game is ended and if there is enough time left in the game session, a new puzzle game will start with a new player in turn to select the subject category and spin the wheel. The above playing steps continue from player to player until the acronym puzzle is once again solved by one of the players at which point the puzzle game ends. If there is still time left in the game session to play another puzzle game, a new player other than the one that started the last puzzle game will now begin the game by spinning the wheel again. Otherwise the game session will come to an end. As was stated earlier, a typical 30 minutes session will accommodate the playing of 3 to 4 game puzzles.